#i still believe in the back to back wins for qatar and abu dhabi

[littlegrapejuice]

Your Champion | LN4

Pairing: Lando Norris x Reader

Summary: The WDC title has been won by Max, but Lando actually doesn't mind as you both know his time will come one day.

Author's Note: i PRAYED that the championship fight would've gone on for longer (at least till qatar (which btw was a shit show)), but then i saw the light come back in lando's eyes + the vid of him congratulating max and i was just so glad for him bc it looked like a massive weight had been lifted off his shoulders😔

It was…

Relieving.

In a way.

The 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix had been decisive for the title of Formula One World Champion.

Max had won the drivers’ championship. It was now definitely over for Lando. And even though he had been a good contender to the title, Lando’s season had mostly been focused on him getting his first victories ever since he’d joined Formula One – which the majority of people tended to forget. Max had been used to being on the podium and being on its top step for years.

This year was the first for Lando. From Miami to Singapore, with Zandvoort in between, Lando Norris had won three Grand Prix after spending the last four years not making it past P2. If he and his team kept driving walking down this path though, then Lando definitely had a chance for the next season.

For this one however, it was over.

And that didn’t really bother him to be honest.

Lando had partied like there was no tomorrow with the grid. Although they still had the last two races of the season waiting for them, everyone wanted to celebrate George winning the race as well as Max winning his fourth title. You hadn’t been very far from him, spending most of the night with the rest of the drivers’ girlfriends with whom you had formed a tight knit group. You were all giggling about the silliest and most random subjects, brainstorming gift ideas for Carmen and Kelly who wanted to offer presents to the winners of the day, and drinking until your respective boyfriends wanted to call it a day. You promised each other to hang out soon again, probably in Qatar depending on which WAG was able to come. And then you all went your separate ways, you leaving with Lando back to your hotel.

The ride was quiet, only the soft sound of the engine could be heard in the taxi. Far less loud than a Formula One car though, and almost lulling you to sleep. Looking out the window to admire the bright lights of Las Vegas, you smiled when you saw the sphere. She had captured your heart during the weekend and you’d found it cute how it had observed the drivers every time they went around it. You were hoping that the one in Abu Dhabi would be similar and got excited thinking about the final race of the year. Still daydreaming during the rest of the journey, you were brought back to reality when Lando squeezed your hand as a way to signal your arrival to the hotel.

Once back in your shared room, you took turns taking a well-deserved shower and then simply went to lie on the bed. The TV was off – none of you was in the mood to watch something and you were definitely too tired to focus on a screen – and the curtains were slightly open – a majestic view of ‘Sin City’ was presenting itself to you which made it easy to understand why the temptations there were so strong, not to be refused.

If someone were to ask you though, your view was a way better one than the one seducing you outside. While you were sitting up, resting against a couple pillows, Lando was laying on his side, his head on your thighs. You smiled as you passed a hand through his curls, Lando relaxing from the gentle and loving touch. It was such a peaceful moment for the both of you. No more stressing thinking about the championship, nor the comments, nor the team. It was just you and him tonight. That was all he needed. He wasn’t Formula One McLaren Driver Lando Norris with you, he was just Lando.

Lando who was self-conscious; Lando who didn’t believe in his own skills; Lando who doubted himself way too much for your liking; Lando who wondered if it was all worth it in the end; Lando who still hoped that he was capable of great things.

You, however, had always seen another side of this Lando. You were more familiar with Lando who made sure to deliver you flowers when you weren’t able to follow him to whatever country he was racing in; Lando who was adored by your friends because of thoughtful his birthday gifts to you were; Lando who would never go to bed if one of you was upset with the other; Lando who would buy you sushi when you were overworking yourself; Lando who never gave up despite the uncertainty.

Even when he was insecure, even when all odds were against him, even when half of the journalists criticised his lack of talent compared to more successful drivers and Lando himself was starting to believe them, he still never gave up. He had been close to do so several times – not his proudest moments. But every time it could have happened, he thought of you and your support throughout the years. He thought of his family, his friends, his fans. It gave him strength. It gave him the motivation to continue. And above all, he also thought of himself. He thought of past Lando, who had such passion and love for karting, who would be over the moon to know he had fought to become a world champion. Lando had been amongst the twenty best drivers of the world for the fifth consecutive year, and he would still be here during the following years. He had deserved his seat, deserved his achievements. And despite the lows, there had been so many highs that Lando knew he could never give up his dream.

He would be a Formula One World Champion one day. And you would be here to witness it.

That was your unknowingly shared thoughts at the moment. You were both hoping for this achievement to happen someday.

It also had a nice ring to it, especially when you thought about how you could would be introducing your boyfriend as a champion in the future. For now though, even if he wasn’t a Formula One champion to the world, he was still a champion to your eyes. And if you were to ask Lando about this strong opinion of yours, he would definitely agree with a cheesy yet romantic reply that would sound like:

“Of course I’m your champion, the best trophy I ever got was when I won your heart!”

And he would laugh at his own words – you would too, to be honest. But despite the unseriousness of his tone, you would see in his eyes that he meant everything he had said. You would recognise that look everywhere – the look of love, because you had the same one whenever your gaze would land upon him. Even if your only answer to that would be to scoff and pretend like it was ridiculous, the way that you would then squeeze his hand and bring it up to your lips in order to give it a light kiss was enough of a giveaway that you were moved by the meaning his words held between the lines.

You’re worth more than any prize I could ever get for racing. When I’ll be old and wrinkly, I’ll look at you and reminisce of everything we’ve been through together. And if I make the mistake of thinking about my career first, I know I’ll still find you easily in my memory because you’ll have been there for every milestone.

These were Lando’s thoughts, and what his eyes were trying to convey. And he hoped you understood every word. But even if not, he would gladly say them to you as many times as needed for you to get that you were his priority over anything else and that he would fuck a championship up whenever you want if your wish was to one day elope before disappearing from the face of the earth. It wasn’t necessarily in your plans at the moment, but the thought of retiring both your jobs to go live on a deserted island had been enough of a recurring joke that it was definitely an option in the future.

For now though, the option that you were both choosing was to enjoy the current moment and get a peaceful night of rest before being caught in the chaotic whirlwind that would be the next race during the following week.

..........

I'm back y'all😝 ngl i wrote that pretty quickly but forgot to post it bc i had my lil collage to do and i always procrastinate the "scouring instagram to find good pics that fit my fic" so then it just disappears from my brain till i finally remember to do it

Anywayyys i hope y'all enjoyed it, it's my shortest work i think but i like it a lot and I'm always down to write ab lando bc he's my fave sooo🤭

Be back whenever I'll be, take care of yourselves, love ya guys<3

[lululovesprongs]

and again😭😭😭😭😭

bringing this back

[political-fluffle]

Andy Khawaja: ‘The whistleblower’

Andy Khawaja is charged with campaign finance violations. He says there’s a bigger story

(…)

‘They fucked me, Paul, they fucked me. First, they destroyed my business. Now they’re coming after me.’ Andy Khawaja believes he’s being persecuted because of what he knows. And what he knows, he tells me, is that Saudi Arabia and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi bought the 2016 election for Donald Trump. (…)

Khawaja claims the Saudis and the Emiratis illegally paid tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars to the Trump campaign in 2016. He says that to keep it secret, they disguised the money as small donations from Americans, using stolen identities and ��virtual credit cards’ or gift cards — donations of less than $200 do not have to be reported to the Federal Election Commission and made public. He claims the Saudis and the Emiratis were able to make thousands of such small donations at a time using the latest payment processing technology. Khawaja knows this, he says, because he sold the know-how to their middleman, George Nader, who will be the central character in this story.

All those supposedly involved in this have issued denials or preferred not to comment. They include Nader’s lawyers; the Saudi and Emirati embassies in Washington, DC; the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee; and Stripe, the company that took credit card payments for them both during the election. Khawaja says he’s tried and failed to get the FBI to investigate. The Bureau isn’t saying what it makes of his story. Khawaja also says he has spoken to a National Security Council member, a congressman, a senator and a former general. Nothing has come of that, either. Meanwhile, his life has been shattered, his company wrecked. But he believes he will be vindicated in the end. (…)

Payment processing is Khawaja’s business. He knows credit cards and he knows how to move money. He may also know how to move money secretly.

In early 2016, Khawaja wanted to create an online shopping mall for the Middle East, an Arab Amazon. He needed investors. Enter George Nader. Like Khawaja, Nader is Lebanese-American. His name might be familiar because he was a witness in the Mueller inquiry. In January 2017, Nader set up a meeting in the Seychelles that he apparently hoped would establish a back channel between the Trump administration and the Kremlin. He’s now awaiting sentence in the US, a convicted pedophile. (…)

Khawaja says that in September 2016, Nader told him why he needed the payment engine. Abu Dhabi wanted help making ‘online micropayments’ in bulk to the Trump campaign and the RNC. He describes Nader asking for help to make it work: ‘How can we generate electronic payouts to the online donation websites? I would like you to show us how we would be able to do that.’

Khawaja wasn’t taking notes or recording these conversations. These are his recollections of what Nader said, and we have only his word. He remembers Nader explaining why they wanted to fund the Trump campaign. According to Khawaja, Nader said: ‘I’ve been meeting with the Trump campaign people…we have a deal with Trump: my boss, His Highness, made a deal that if we help Trump get elected, he’s going to be harsh on Iran, he’s going to take out the nuclear deal that the Obama administration made. That will cripple the Iranian economy and will sanction Iran from selling oil again. It will make it very difficult for them to compete in the oil market. That’s worth a hundred billion dollars to us. That’s the reason we cannot allow Hillary to win at any cost. She must lose.’ (…)

The plot to buy the election was still taking shape, Khawaja says, when he walked away: Nader would have to develop the payment engine without his help. He heard nothing more until January 2017, after Trump had won and was preparing to take office. Khawaja says he gave Nader ‘a couple of spare tickets’ to events at the Inauguration. He describes Nader sitting at his table, smiling and saying, ‘You see, I told you, I told you Trump was going to win.’

Khawaja remembers Nader telling him that Trump’s first foreign trip would be to Riyadh, to ‘celebrate’ with MbS and MbZ: ‘They’re the ones that got him elected.’ There was more — Saudi Arabia and the UAE would announce a blockade of their rival, Qatar, and Trump would support it.

Trump did, in fact, make his first foreign trip to Riyadh, in May 2017. And he did support the blockade of Qatar, which began in June 2017. Khawaja says Nader told him during their talk at the Inauguration that they had put ‘a few hundred million’ into the effort to elect Trump. At the fish restaurant, I ask Khawaja if he thinks the payments are continuing today. ‘One hundred percent.’ (…)

While there is no hard evidence that Khawaja’s story is true, his account is supported by two witnesses. On our night out in Beirut, we meet another businessman who dealt with Nader in the UAE. This man, who arrives in a silver Rolls Royce, recalls that he, too, was asked by Nader to sell him a credit card payments gateway in 2016, and that Nader mentioned a connection to the UAE. He remembers Nader seeming almost desperate to acquire the gateway.

And it seems that Nader told at least one other person about the small-dollar donations. Around the time of the 2016 election, a friend of Nader’s for 30 years says he saw him for lunch at the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Los Angeles. This man’s recollections of what Nader said are remarkably similar to Khawaja’s. He also says that Nader told him he was getting $12 million a month from the royal court in Abu Dhabi to run the election operation: ‘He finally got his big payday.’ (…)

Nader did tell me that he had been to the White House ‘a dozen times’ to help set up Trump’s visit to Riyadh. If this is true, was Nader acting as an unregistered agent of Saudi Arabia and the UAE? After I saw him in Abu Dhabi, I met a senior Emirati diplomat in Washington, DC. He remembered Nader ‘frantically banging on the embassy’s door’ after Mueller’s team had arrested him at the airport. But, he said, the UAE had been careful to stay ‘35,000 feet above the US election’. (…)

There remains the question of Trump’s phenomenal fundraising among small donors. Barack Obama reinvented online fundraising and in 2012 small donations provided 28 percent of his campaign budget. In 2016, only 22 percent of Hillary Clinton’s campaign money came from small donors. In the same year, 69 percent of all the money the Trump campaign raised came from individuals giving less than $200 each. And — a slightly different measure — in one quarter last year, 99 percent of Trump’s contributors were small donors. (…)

‘How do you like that title? I’m the whistleblower, Paul, the whistleblower. The whistleblower who revealed foreign government interference in our election has been charged to cover up for the Trump administration. Falsely accused and charged…it’s Operation Suffocation, Operation Choke Point. End-to-end. Take him out. Kill him. They tried to frame me so bad. At the end of the day, I sleep like a baby at night. Because I know I didn’t do anything. I am the whistleblower.’

[torentialtribute]

Shane Lowry left the party at 5am… but there’s still a week to go!

Sunday evening they ate a tent dry at Royal Portrush. Then they left for the city of Dublin. & # 39; I was asked by an American journalist how big the party would be tonight? I felt I had to straighten it, & Shane Lowry said smilingly. "You mean how big the party would be all week?"

After the quiet Italian Francesco Molinari, the Claret Jug gave up the inquisitive type and embraced the animal festival. This may prove to be the wildest ride, as Darren Clarke put his arms around the trophy eight years ago and stopped his drinking cap.

The party started well when Lowry and his property in bar 37 rolled on Dawson. Street just after midnight. The two-man band hit the opening chords of Fields of Athenry and Lowry stood up to beat the chorus. He had the Claret Jug in one hand and a pint in the other.

Shane Lowry celebrates with the Claret Jug and a pint in Dublin after winning The Open

De winner of the 2019 Open posted this photo on social media the following morning the night before

Lowry ended up kissing the jug and putting it down his beer.

& # 39; So it was m, & # 39; said Gary Hayes, one of the partygoers who posted some beautiful images on social media. & # 39; Shane left at about five o'clock after a party that disgraced Darren … and it is not over yet. & # 39; Even Lowry & # 39; s grandma Emily Scanlon, who doesn't drink, has the taste. & # 39; I have had no brandy since 2009, but I had two watching Shane, & # 39; she told RTE. "It's almost killing me."

It is no exaggeration to say that the entire Irish nation had a wave of elation over the boy from Clara, County Offaly, and the trophy that he now witch has become known as the Clara Jug.

Lowry led the news bulletins all day long, because everyone with even the thinnest connection to his story was found and interviewed. Sports Minister Shane Ross was lobbied to find some money for a big party. Another.

The man himself remained unobtrusive and perhaps cared for an all-powerful hangover. He will be in Dublin on Tuesday at 1 p.m. Imagine the scenes.

The first thing Lowry did on Sunday to complete his media tasks was to choose his first pint of Guinness while flying this week's insanely planned WGC event in Memphis.

Lowry and his wife Wendy pose for the photo with the Claret Jug after the victory at Royal Portrush

[1945918] The Irishman depicted outside the Boar & # 39; s Head in Dublin on Monday with two police officer

[19459WhiletherestofthetiredcavalcadeofprosgrabbedtheirclubsandheadedforLowryacharterplanetotheheatwaveofTennesseegotreadyfortheVIPlounge

& # 39; I hope you have saved something for me & # 39 ;, he said to one of his friends holding a can of beer in each hand. It wasn't long before there were no more glances.

When Lowry came around Monday, he awoke from a mountain of praise from his colleagues & # 39; s, a few sincere words from Rory McIlroy and wise advice from 2016 Masters champion Danny Willett

Lowry and McIlroy grew up together as part of the Irish golf set-up. & # 39; There is only one that is good in this group, & # 39; said one of the organizers to coach Pete Cowen, who was working for the Irish Golf Union at that time. & # 39; No, there are two, & # 39; Cowen replied in his blunt Yorkshire way. "There is Rory and there is the fat boy with the glasses."

On Instagram, McIlroy posted a photo from those days and his moving message to the new Open champion.

& # 39; Although last week I was not meant for myself, I could not be happier and prouder of Shane. How he handled everything over the weekend … emotions, nerves and disorders tell you that I have met him for the past 15 years. 2019 champion golfer of the year! Enjoy some good things from the Claret Jug! & # 39;

Rory McIlroy posted this photo of the couple when they were younger when he congratulated Lowry

There are many comparisons between Lowry now and when Willett won in Augusta. Like the Englishman, Lowry is confronted with a different world of admiration and inviting offers to chase the world and earn millions of dollars in appearance.

Willett said: & # 39; He's going to take some free time and that's right, Because these things don't happen often and you have to enjoy them. Then you get yourself back and sharp again and try to push through. It is not easy. You can be pulled in different directions.

& # 39; I made some bad decisions and played too much golf when I was not really in the mood. I would certainly do it differently if I could go back. Shane should be a little selfish and what is best for him. & # 39;

Helping Lowry make the right decisions is the fact that he knows how low this game can take you. Twelve months ago he missed the cut in the Open for a fourth year in a row. He arrived at Carnoustie's parking lot and started crying.

Lowry had privileges to play in every great event around the world after winning the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in 2015. Then he blew a four-shots lead in the 2016 US Open and his world fell apart. When he started in Abu Dhabi in January, he was back to scratch. He had a new caddy, Bo Martin. He had no exemptions for one of the major tournaments.

After two good rounds in that event, he spoke with a small group about the departure to Qatar and India and some smaller events on the European Tour. to rebuild his career before the start of qualifying for the Ryder Cup in September.

The 32-year-old golfer kisses the claret can while celebrating his maiden major triumph

There is a fairytale element, therefore, to the fact that he is Open champion with years of exceptions to play everywhere and Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington telling him that he wants him to lead the team next year.

As Lowry wry, after winning for the first time on tour, Cowen said: & # 39; Not bad for a fat child with glasses. & # 39;

It is not surprising that his fellow pros are thrilled for him. Lowry is one of the good ones. As the Spaniard tweeted Pablo Larrazabal, with Lowry ready to win the Open: & Believe it or not, he is a much better guy than the golf he plays. & # 39;

This triumph was also a shot in the arm for the European Tour, bruised by Americans running away with so many of the leading prizes and trying to compete against the glamor of the PGA Tour.

The start of the Ryder Cup qualification in Wentworth was always a feel good affair, with everyone bar Sergio Garcia of the last team committed to play. Now they will be accompanied by the Open champion.

For Lowry, that event will represent a line in the sand, the perfect opportunity to reset and go again.

But for the time being filled with all his promises and the dark days are a thing of the past, it's time to party. And party.

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[jobs-in-dubai-uae]

UAE: It was during 2011 when the worsening civil war in Syria sent a tidal wave of refugees over the border for the relative security of Lebanon. The sheer numbers threatened to overwhelm Lebanon’s fragile economy and fractured society; no more so than in the country’s public education system, which suddenly found itself facing a tripling of its intake. At the time, Salyne El Samarany was just completing two years as a kindergarten teacher in a rural school in northern Lebanon. A recent university graduate, she had offered her skills to Teach for Lebanon, then a new organisation aiming to get more educators into under-resourced schools. “Those 25 students that I worked with in that kindergarten have changed my life totally,” she says. Today, Ms El Samarany is the CEO of Teach For Lebanon, the same organisation that recruited her as a raw teacher nine years ago, and is now dealing first-hand with the country’s continuing struggle to education what is now estimated to be about 350,000 Syrian refugee children still living there. Teach For Lebanon is part of a worldwide partnership of 46 member organisations, ranging from Afghanistan and Australia to Sweden and Vietnam. The newest member is Uganda. The Teach for All movement this month celebrates its 10th anniversary. First developed in the United States and then Britain, each organisation operates independently. Every member is locally led and funded, often through social entrepreneurs, recruiting what it identifies as future leaders to first spend two years teaching in schools and areas that need them most. Standards are high, and typically only one in four applicants is accepted. The hope is, afterwards, that they will continue their passion for education, whether still in the classroom, or more broadly in related areas like public policy, raising standards and best practices everywhere, and supported by large and diverse worldwide support group of like-minded people and organisations. Ms El Samarany was one of those bright prospects, or a Fellow, as those currently teaching are known. After completing their two years of service, they become Alumni, ready to share and help other develop ideas with any of the 46 partners of Teach for All. After becoming an Alumni, Ms Samarany was chosen as the Lebanese Ambassador for Youth at the Arab Thought Foundation, and in 2014 was one of nine young people chosen for the 2014 UN Special Envoy for Global Education’s Youth Courage Award. The awards were in part recognition for the challenges she faced as a new teacher, in a school where security was sometimes uncertain and resources so stretched that even chalk was in short supply. Only one of the teachers had a university degree. As CEO of Teach for Lebanon, those challenges have only multiplied. Before the Syrian refugee crisis, only one in four Lebanese children, or about 250,000 students, used the public schools. Today, the influx of refugee children has swollen those numbers by more than a third. Even so, another 200,000 Syrian youngsters living in Lebanon are still outside the education system. To date, Teach for Lebanon has placed more than 100 teachers in 19 resource-stretched schools, from Northern and South Lebanon to the Bekaa. The organisation estimates it has helped about 8,400 high-risk pupils. One of the strengths of being part of international network, Ms El Samarany says, is the depth of support and experience teachers and education workers can draw on, especially when what confronts them on a daily basis can seem so daunting. “We share best practices, learn from each other and reassure each other that the challenges we face are more or less similar,” she says. “To see classrooms in Nepal or India where Fellows are doing amazing work gives me hope that this is relevant in our context.” The Syrian refugee crisis has impacted another young teacher, but this time over 3,300 kilometres away. Simon Horowitz, now 31, had long decided that the career prospects for his degree in business studies did not appeal. As he puts it: “I was never going to feel comfortable in an office job sitting behind a desk with a computer. I thrive from helping people and get them to start to believe in themselves.” British born, he moved to Austria in 2010 and became fluent in German. “It’s always been very important in my life where I feel I am working with my heart, where I feel doing something meaningful and in my own little way I am making the world a better place,” he says. Three years later, he discovered Teach for Austria. “I Just remember going into the office for the first time and feeling the atmosphere there and just sensing the positivity among the Fellows and among the staff”, he recalls. “I realised I felt at home there and I wanted to be part of it.” Six weeks of training followed before Mr Horowitz found himself in the only public school in a district of Salzburg with a high intake of immigrant children. “It was a huge mix,” he says. “There was only one Austrian child in the whole school.” Many of the students were from Turkey and Eastern Europe but as the refugee crisis enveloped Europe two years ago, more and more arrived from Syria and Afghanistan. “At my school we have two full classes of children with this background,” he says. By then he had the advantage of two years’ experience as a middle school teacher. His confidence in the classroom was a contrast to his early days when: “I felt like I was jumping and I needed someone to catch me. I didn’t really feel like a teacher at that point. I was motivated, and I was ready. I had all of these ideas, and I was kind of stopped in my tracks at the beginning. “I realised that first of all I have to win the trust of these kids you have to build up a relationship step by step. You have to take it day by day and build up relationships with these children, many of whom have had difficult lives.” Mr Horowitz has continued to work in the classroom after the end of his two-year initial commitment. He is now part of a worldwide network of over 55,000 Alumni, of whom nearly seven in 10 have stayed working either in education or with disadvantaged communities. In the Middle East, the Teach for All network operates just in Lebanon and Qatar although it hopes to expand this to five countries by 2020. Three years ago, plans for a Teach For UAE were announced, although the project has yet to launch. There is certainly much work to be done. One UN report estimates that in the Middle East and North Africa region, more than 12 million children and teenagers do not go to school, including up to half of all girls. Such problems are not restricted to the Mena region though. Back in 2011, Cristian Cortes realised soon after graduating with degree in molecular biology that life in a lab coat was not for him. He approached a new organisation, Enseña Chile, or Teach for Chile, and after training, began his two years of teaching in 2012 at a high school. As others elsewhere had found, many of his pupils would come from difficult backgrounds, often as migrants, and where violence and extortion were constant problems. After his two years were up, Mr Cortes decided he wanted to widen his experience. The Teach for All network, and the opportunities and support it offers, has seen him work in Texas, California, Columbia and Israel. He plans next to visit Lebanon and this week he attended the Qudwa teachers forum in Abu Dhabi. His interests include helping teachers everywhere to better meet the aspirations of their students. “I realised inequity was not just in the classroom, but across the whole education system", he says. “That there are greater problems.” Like everyone involved in the Teach for All movement, the story always begins with a slightly nervous young man or women standing at the front of a classroom of expectant young faces for the first time. “I worked for two years,” says Mr Cortes. “And it has completely changed the way I see the world.” © The National via Edarabia.com

[edarabia]

UAE: It was during 2011 when the worsening civil war in Syria sent a tidal wave of refugees over the border for the relative security of Lebanon. The sheer numbers threatened to overwhelm Lebanon’s fragile economy and fractured society; no more so than in the country’s public education system, which suddenly found itself facing a tripling of its intake. At the time, Salyne El Samarany was just completing two years as a kindergarten teacher in a rural school in northern Lebanon. A recent university graduate, she had offered her skills to Teach for Lebanon, then a new organisation aiming to get more educators into under-resourced schools. “Those 25 students that I worked with in that kindergarten have changed my life totally,” she says. Today, Ms El Samarany is the CEO of Teach For Lebanon, the same organisation that recruited her as a raw teacher nine years ago, and is now dealing first-hand with the country’s continuing struggle to education what is now estimated to be about 350,000 Syrian refugee children still living there. Teach For Lebanon is part of a worldwide partnership of 46 member organisations, ranging from Afghanistan and Australia to Sweden and Vietnam. The newest member is Uganda. The Teach for All movement this month celebrates its 10th anniversary. First developed in the United States and then Britain, each organisation operates independently. Every member is locally led and funded, often through social entrepreneurs, recruiting what it identifies as future leaders to first spend two years teaching in schools and areas that need them most. Standards are high, and typically only one in four applicants is accepted. The hope is, afterwards, that they will continue their passion for education, whether still in the classroom, or more broadly in related areas like public policy, raising standards and best practices everywhere, and supported by large and diverse worldwide support group of like-minded people and organisations. Ms El Samarany was one of those bright prospects, or a Fellow, as those currently teaching are known. After completing their two years of service, they become Alumni, ready to share and help other develop ideas with any of the 46 partners of Teach for All. After becoming an Alumni, Ms Samarany was chosen as the Lebanese Ambassador for Youth at the Arab Thought Foundation, and in 2014 was one of nine young people chosen for the 2014 UN Special Envoy for Global Education’s Youth Courage Award. The awards were in part recognition for the challenges she faced as a new teacher, in a school where security was sometimes uncertain and resources so stretched that even chalk was in short supply. Only one of the teachers had a university degree. As CEO of Teach for Lebanon, those challenges have only multiplied. Before the Syrian refugee crisis, only one in four Lebanese children, or about 250,000 students, used the public schools. Today, the influx of refugee children has swollen those numbers by more than a third. Even so, another 200,000 Syrian youngsters living in Lebanon are still outside the education system. To date, Teach for Lebanon has placed more than 100 teachers in 19 resource-stretched schools, from Northern and South Lebanon to the Bekaa. The organisation estimates it has helped about 8,400 high-risk pupils. One of the strengths of being part of international network, Ms El Samarany says, is the depth of support and experience teachers and education workers can draw on, especially when what confronts them on a daily basis can seem so daunting. “We share best practices, learn from each other and reassure each other that the challenges we face are more or less similar,” she says. “To see classrooms in Nepal or India where Fellows are doing amazing work gives me hope that this is relevant in our context.” The Syrian refugee crisis has impacted another young teacher, but this time over 3,300 kilometres away. Simon Horowitz, now 31, had long decided that the career prospects for his degree in business studies did not appeal. As he puts it: “I was never going to feel comfortable in an office job sitting behind a desk with a computer. I thrive from helping people and get them to start to believe in themselves.” British born, he moved to Austria in 2010 and became fluent in German. “It’s always been very important in my life where I feel I am working with my heart, where I feel doing something meaningful and in my own little way I am making the world a better place,” he says. Three years later, he discovered Teach for Austria. “I Just remember going into the office for the first time and feeling the atmosphere there and just sensing the positivity among the Fellows and among the staff”, he recalls. “I realised I felt at home there and I wanted to be part of it.” Six weeks of training followed before Mr Horowitz found himself in the only public school in a district of Salzburg with a high intake of immigrant children. “It was a huge mix,” he says. “There was only one Austrian child in the whole school.” Many of the students were from Turkey and Eastern Europe but as the refugee crisis enveloped Europe two years ago, more and more arrived from Syria and Afghanistan. “At my school we have two full classes of children with this background,” he says. By then he had the advantage of two years’ experience as a middle school teacher. His confidence in the classroom was a contrast to his early days when: “I felt like I was jumping and I needed someone to catch me. I didn’t really feel like a teacher at that point. I was motivated, and I was ready. I had all of these ideas, and I was kind of stopped in my tracks at the beginning. “I realised that first of all I have to win the trust of these kids you have to build up a relationship step by step. You have to take it day by day and build up relationships with these children, many of whom have had difficult lives.” Mr Horowitz has continued to work in the classroom after the end of his two-year initial commitment. He is now part of a worldwide network of over 55,000 Alumni, of whom nearly seven in 10 have stayed working either in education or with disadvantaged communities. In the Middle East, the Teach for All network operates just in Lebanon and Qatar although it hopes to expand this to five countries by 2020. Three years ago, plans for a Teach For UAE were announced, although the project has yet to launch. There is certainly much work to be done. One UN report estimates that in the Middle East and North Africa region, more than 12 million children and teenagers do not go to school, including up to half of all girls. Such problems are not restricted to the Mena region though. Back in 2011, Cristian Cortes realised soon after graduating with degree in molecular biology that life in a lab coat was not for him. He approached a new organisation, Enseña Chile, or Teach for Chile, and after training, began his two years of teaching in 2012 at a high school. As others elsewhere had found, many of his pupils would come from difficult backgrounds, often as migrants, and where violence and extortion were constant problems. After his two years were up, Mr Cortes decided he wanted to widen his experience. The Teach for All network, and the opportunities and support it offers, has seen him work in Texas, California, Columbia and Israel. He plans next to visit Lebanon and this week he attended the Qudwa teachers forum in Abu Dhabi. His interests include helping teachers everywhere to better meet the aspirations of their students. “I realised inequity was not just in the classroom, but across the whole education system", he says. “That there are greater problems.” Like everyone involved in the Teach for All movement, the story always begins with a slightly nervous young man or women standing at the front of a classroom of expectant young faces for the first time. “I worked for two years,” says Mr Cortes. “And it has completely changed the way I see the world.” © The National

[jmmgroup-blog]

Safety comes at a hefty price

Ali Waqar was considering buying a 2009 Ford Explorer for Dh14,500 in December, but he put off the purchase until January.

The delay cost the Pakistani banker, 36, an additional Dh400 – not on the price of his new ­motor, but on the car insurance policy.

This was because of a raft of new rules introduced in the UAE on January 1 governing how the car insurance market operates.

“It was an old car, so I wasn’t willing to go for anything other than third-party insurance,” says Abu Dhabi resident Mr Waqar. “But I delayed the transaction and then when I bought the car in January, I had to pay Dh1,400, compared to about Dh1,000, which I had been quoted from the same insurance company a month earlier.”

Mr Waqar is one of many UAE residents to receive an unexpected hike in his insurance quote this year. While the changes have resulted in increased coverage for drivers, they have also increased premiums, causing confusion for many drivers.

Recent data from the comparison site compareit4me.com shows that drivers in the UAE are paying an average of 14.88 per cent more for their car insurance in 2017 than in 2016. Those who have fared the worst are drivers of SUVs valued at under Dh50,000, who have seen fully comprehensive premiums jump by an average of 40.59 per cent, compared to 9.53 per cent more for saloon car owners.

But the changes aren’t all bad news for consumers, says Mirza Qouneh, a legal adviser at the UAE’s Insurance Authority who helped to draw up the new legal framework. “Now the maximum liability of the insurance company for third-party property damage has increased eightfold, from Dh250,000 to Dh2 million, so it’s a win-win situation,” says Mr Qouneh.

He illustrates his point with the example of an insured driver causing an accident that writes off another driver’s SUV, worth Dh400,000. “In the past, the insurance company would only pay up to Dh250,000, so the insured would then be liable to pay Dh150,000 from their own pocket,” explains Mr Qouneh. “Now the insurance company pays up to Dh2m, which provides enough protection for the person who caused the accident and also for the injured parties.”

Mr Qouneh and his team didn’t embark upon the changes lightly. First they spent three years researching car insurance practices in other countries, as well as analysing the local market.

“Car insurance policies in the UAE had remained more or less the same for the past 30 years,” Mr Qouneh says. “Back then, the most expensive cars only cost around Dh15,000. But now the price of cars has of course gone up, so there was a substantial need to make a new policy model that provides a wider scope of protection.”

A number of other new rules have also widened the scope of coverage. Whereas in the past, parents, spouses and children present in the car at the time of the accident were excluded from coverage, now they are covered up to Dh200,000 each.

Omar Ghazanfar, a British doctor based in Abu Dhabi, has a Ford Explorer which he insured last year for Dh3,200, and is currently looking at a quotation of Dh4,000 – “despite the car value having depreciated”, he says. Although he’s now paying more than he’d anticipated for his insurance, at least now, Mr Ghazanfar’s wife and two children, ages 10 and 7, are also covered in the event they are also in the car in an accident.

The new rules also work in favour of those with cars less than a year old. “In the past, insurance companies had the freedom to fix the car of the injured party in any auto-shop, even if it was one that was run by a couple of novices trying to learn how to become mechanics,” says Mr Qouneh. “Now, according to the new regulations, if the car is one year old or less, the insurance company is compelled to fix the car in the dealership.”

Another plus point is that insurance companies were previously under no legal obligation to compensate within a specific period of time. Now, if a person files a claim with the company and has all the necessary documents, the insurance company must settle the claim and pay compensation within 15 days. “It’s about speeding up the process,” Mr Qouneh explains. “If the insurance company doesn’t pay the claim in a timely manner, the injured party, and/or the insured, can ask the insurance company to pay them damages for not paying the claims within that 15 days, in addition to paying the amount of the claim.”

If you are not at fault, according to the new rules, you’re now automatically provided with a replacement car (or the equivalent compensation) by the other party’s insurance provider for a maximum of 10 days at up to Dh300 a day.

The new regulations have also closed legal loopholes to prevent insurance companies from getting out of paying in the event of bad weather. After the unprecedented storm of March 2016, some insurance companies tried to avoid paying claims by arguing that the damage to cars was caused by a “flood”, Mr Qouneh explains. “This was because floods, as well as other such natural disasters, were excluded from coverage. We amended the policy, so that only the concerned authority in that particular emirate can declare an event to be a natural disaster, not the insurance company. In the case of the storm last March, the storm was never officially declared as such,” he says.

But while better cover is positive for UAE consumers, the rise in premiums has the knock-on effect of making them gravitate towards cheaper third-party liability insurance, rather than comprehensive cover. According to Compareit4me site, its share of third-party policy sales doubled in the January-February 2017 period, compared to the last two months of 2016.

“This may suggest that more UAE residents are being driven towards third-party coverage, having been priced out of the ability to secure fully comprehensive policies,” says Jonathan Rawling, chief financial officer at compareit4me.com. “If this trend continues, we may see a situation in which the least affluent people in the UAE are left with inadequate financial protection.”

However the price of third-party liability has also risen in line with new guidelines. In the past, insurance companies were able to sell third-party policies for a minimum of Dh600, whereas now the minimum is Dh750.

Mr Rawling says those looking to reduce what they pay should consider reducing add-ons – extra protection that is not standard on a policy such as off-road cover.

“In a legal sense, you only ‘need’ to have third-party insurance for your car to drive on the roads. But lots of people opt for fully comprehensive cover because it protects the investment they’ve made into the vehicle. It’s the same story with add-ons,” he says.

“If you’ll benefit from the feature, then it’s probably a box worth ticking, particularly given they only cost about Dh150 apiece. And if you really won’t benefit from an add-on then you’re under no obligation to buy it.”

However, not all consumers are paying more now for their car insurance.

Noelia Corte, a Spaniard who lives in Dubai, has just renewed her fully comprehensive policy with RSA Insurance Group for her 2012 Toyota Land Cruiser for Dh2,950, compared to the approximately Dh3,600 last year she paid with a different company.

“This is the lowest premium I have paid since I came to the UAE five years ago, and I was really surprised to read that others are experiencing premium increases,” she says.

Mr Qouneh points out that consumers can now choose between 48 different insurance companies on the market when they’re shopping around for quotes. “Many of them sell by the minimum standard, so you can always buy insurance from those cheaper companies,” he says. But many consumers don’t renew their car insurance until the last minute, leaving them with less time to shop around. According to ServiceMarket.com, a marketplace for home services, almost a third of residents look to buy their car insurance within a day of their car registration renewal date.

Mr Waqar took a savvier approach, securing his premium through haggling and comparing the market online. He is now about to pay for the annual renewal on his other car, a 2014 Honda Accord. His premium is Dh2,450, which has remained the same year-on-year since he purchased the car new, despite the fact that the vehicle has depreciated in value by 15 to 20 per cent each year.

“Of course I’m not happy, I was expecting to pay less this year,” he says. “I feel like the companies are squeezing us, at a time when life in the UAE is becoming more expensive,” he says.

Despite the wide scope of changes, some experts feel they don’t go far enough, especially when it comes to penalising dangerous drivers.

Phil Clarke, road safety consultant at the Transport Research Lab, says one factor that needs addressing is the ease of having a car insured without checking a background check on the motorist for traffic offences.

“In the UAE there is no link between driving records and the cost of insurance,” he says.

Frederik Bisbjerg, the executive vice president, retail Mena, at Qatar Insurance Company, says that drivers with a history of causing accidents can also still escape paying higher premiums by switching to another insurer. “The issue arises when a driver with accident history switches insurers to avoid a higher premium; the new insurer cannot (yet) check his accidents and therefore will tend to offer him too low a rate. I know the RTA [Road and Transport Authority] is working on a solution where accident history will be shared between insurers, so I believe it’s a solution that’s coming soon.”

pf@thenational.ae

Follow us on Twitter @TheNationalPF

Source: The National

Safety comes at a hefty price was originally published on JMM Group of Companies

[martinfzimmerman]

Safety comes at a hefty price

Ali Waqar was considering buying a 2009 Ford Explorer for Dh14,500 in December, but he put off the purchase until January.

The delay cost the Pakistani banker, 36, an additional Dh400 - not on the price of his new ­motor, but on the car insurance policy.

This was because of a raft of new rules introduced in the UAE on January 1 governing how the car insurance market operates.

"It was an old car, so I wasn't willing to go for anything other than third-party insurance," says Abu Dhabi resident Mr Waqar. "But I delayed the transaction and then when I bought the car in January, I had to pay Dh1,400, compared to about Dh1,000, which I had been quoted from the same insurance company a month earlier."

Mr Waqar is one of many UAE residents to receive an unexpected hike in his insurance quote this year. While the changes have resulted in increased coverage for drivers, they have also increased premiums, causing confusion for many drivers.

Recent data from the comparison site compareit4me.com shows that drivers in the UAE are paying an average of 14.88 per cent more for their car insurance in 2017 than in 2016. Those who have fared the worst are drivers of SUVs valued at under Dh50,000, who have seen fully comprehensive premiums jump by an average of 40.59 per cent, compared to 9.53 per cent more for saloon car owners.

But the changes aren't all bad news for consumers, says Mirza Qouneh, a legal adviser at the UAE's Insurance Authority who helped to draw up the new legal framework. "Now the maximum liability of the insurance company for third-party property damage has increased eightfold, from Dh250,000 to Dh2 million, so it's a win-win situation," says Mr Qouneh.

He illustrates his point with the example of an insured driver causing an accident that writes off another driver's SUV, worth Dh400,000. "In the past, the insurance company would only pay up to Dh250,000, so the insured would then be liable to pay Dh150,000 from their own pocket," explains Mr Qouneh. "Now the insurance company pays up to Dh2m, which provides enough protection for the person who caused the accident and also for the injured parties."

Mr Qouneh and his team didn't embark upon the changes lightly. First they spent three years researching car insurance practices in other countries, as well as analysing the local market.

"Car insurance policies in the UAE had remained more or less the same for the past 30 years," Mr Qouneh says. "Back then, the most expensive cars only cost around Dh15,000. But now the price of cars has of course gone up, so there was a substantial need to make a new policy model that provides a wider scope of protection."

A number of other new rules have also widened the scope of coverage. Whereas in the past, parents, spouses and children present in the car at the time of the accident were excluded from coverage, now they are covered up to Dh200,000 each.

Omar Ghazanfar, a British doctor based in Abu Dhabi, has a Ford Explorer which he insured last year for Dh3,200, and is currently looking at a quotation of Dh4,000 - "despite the car value having depreciated", he says. Although he's now paying more than he'd anticipated for his insurance, at least now, Mr Ghazanfar's wife and two children, ages 10 and 7, are also covered in the event they are also in the car in an accident.

The new rules also work in favour of those with cars less than a year old. "In the past, insurance companies had the freedom to fix the car of the injured party in any auto-shop, even if it was one that was run by a couple of novices trying to learn how to become mechanics," says Mr Qouneh. "Now, according to the new regulations, if the car is one year old or less, the insurance company is compelled to fix the car in the dealership."

Another plus point is that insurance companies were previously under no legal obligation to compensate within a specific period of time. Now, if a person files a claim with the company and has all the necessary documents, the insurance company must settle the claim and pay compensation within 15 days. "It's about speeding up the process," Mr Qouneh explains. "If the insurance company doesn't pay the claim in a timely manner, the injured party, and/or the insured, can ask the insurance company to pay them damages for not paying the claims within that 15 days, in addition to paying the amount of the claim."

If you are not at fault, according to the new rules, you're now automatically provided with a replacement car (or the equivalent compensation) by the other party's insurance provider for a maximum of 10 days at up to Dh300 a day.

The new regulations have also closed legal loopholes to prevent insurance companies from getting out of paying in the event of bad weather. After the unprecedented storm of March 2016, some insurance companies tried to avoid paying claims by arguing that the damage to cars was caused by a "flood", Mr Qouneh explains. "This was because floods, as well as other such natural disasters, were excluded from coverage. We amended the policy, so that only the concerned authority in that particular emirate can declare an event to be a natural disaster, not the insurance company. In the case of the storm last March, the storm was never officially declared as such," he says.

But while better cover is positive for UAE consumers, the rise in premiums has the knock-on effect of making them gravitate towards cheaper third-party liability insurance, rather than comprehensive cover. According to Compareit4me site, its share of third-party policy sales doubled in the January-February 2017 period, compared to the last two months of 2016.

"This may suggest that more UAE residents are being driven towards third-party coverage, having been priced out of the ability to secure fully comprehensive policies," says Jonathan Rawling, chief financial officer at compareit4me.com. "If this trend continues, we may see a situation in which the least affluent people in the UAE are left with inadequate financial protection."

However the price of third-party liability has also risen in line with new guidelines. In the past, insurance companies were able to sell third-party policies for a minimum of Dh600, whereas now the minimum is Dh750.

Mr Rawling says those looking to reduce what they pay should consider reducing add-ons - extra protection that is not standard on a policy such as off-road cover.

"In a legal sense, you only 'need' to have third-party insurance for your car to drive on the roads. But lots of people opt for fully comprehensive cover because it protects the investment they've made into the vehicle. It's the same story with add-ons," he says.

"If you'll benefit from the feature, then it's probably a box worth ticking, particularly given they only cost about Dh150 apiece. And if you really won't benefit from an add-on then you're under no obligation to buy it."

However, not all consumers are paying more now for their car insurance.

Noelia Corte, a Spaniard who lives in Dubai, has just renewed her fully comprehensive policy with RSA Insurance Group for her 2012 Toyota Land Cruiser for Dh2,950, compared to the approximately Dh3,600 last year she paid with a different company.

"This is the lowest premium I have paid since I came to the UAE five years ago, and I was really surprised to read that others are experiencing premium increases," she says.

Mr Qouneh points out that consumers can now choose between 48 different insurance companies on the market when they're shopping around for quotes. "Many of them sell by the minimum standard, so you can always buy insurance from those cheaper companies," he says. But many consumers don't renew their car insurance until the last minute, leaving them with less time to shop around. According to ServiceMarket.com, a marketplace for home services, almost a third of residents look to buy their car insurance within a day of their car registration renewal date.

Mr Waqar took a savvier approach, securing his premium through haggling and comparing the market online. He is now about to pay for the annual renewal on his other car, a 2014 Honda Accord. His premium is Dh2,450, which has remained the same year-on-year since he purchased the car new, despite the fact that the vehicle has depreciated in value by 15 to 20 per cent each year.

"Of course I'm not happy, I was expecting to pay less this year," he says. "I feel like the companies are squeezing us, at a time when life in the UAE is becoming more expensive," he says.

Despite the wide scope of changes, some experts feel they don't go far enough, especially when it comes to penalising dangerous drivers.

Phil Clarke, road safety consultant at the Transport Research Lab, says one factor that needs addressing is the ease of having a car insured without checking a background check on the motorist for traffic offences.

"In the UAE there is no link between driving records and the cost of insurance," he says.

Frederik Bisbjerg, the executive vice president, retail Mena, at Qatar Insurance Company, says that drivers with a history of causing accidents can also still escape paying higher premiums by switching to another insurer. "The issue arises when a driver with accident history switches insurers to avoid a higher premium; the new insurer cannot (yet) check his accidents and therefore will tend to offer him too low a rate. I know the RTA [Road and Transport Authority] is working on a solution where accident history will be shared between insurers, so I believe it's a solution that's coming soon."

pf@thenational.ae

Follow us on Twitter @TheNationalPF

from Personal Finance RSS feed - The National http://www.thenational.ae/business/personal-finance/safety-comes-at-a-hefty-price

[jobs-in-dubai-uae]

UAE: It was during 2011 when the worsening civil war in Syria sent a tidal wave of refugees over the border for the relative security of Lebanon. The sheer numbers threatened to overwhelm Lebanon’s fragile economy and fractured society; no more so than in the country’s public education system, which suddenly found itself facing a tripling of its intake. At the time, Salyne El Samarany was just completing two years as a kindergarten teacher in a rural school in northern Lebanon. A recent university graduate, she had offered her skills to Teach for Lebanon, then a new organisation aiming to get more educators into under-resourced schools. “Those 25 students that I worked with in that kindergarten have changed my life totally,” she says. Today, Ms El Samarany is the CEO of Teach For Lebanon, the same organisation that recruited her as a raw teacher nine years ago, and is now dealing first-hand with the country’s continuing struggle to education what is now estimated to be about 350,000 Syrian refugee children still living there. Teach For Lebanon is part of a worldwide partnership of 46 member organisations, ranging from Afghanistan and Australia to Sweden and Vietnam. The newest member is Uganda. The Teach for All movement this month celebrates its 10th anniversary. First developed in the United States and then Britain, each organisation operates independently. Every member is locally led and funded, often through social entrepreneurs, recruiting what it identifies as future leaders to first spend two years teaching in schools and areas that need them most. Standards are high, and typically only one in four applicants is accepted. The hope is, afterwards, that they will continue their passion for education, whether still in the classroom, or more broadly in related areas like public policy, raising standards and best practices everywhere, and supported by large and diverse worldwide support group of like-minded people and organisations. Ms El Samarany was one of those bright prospects, or a Fellow, as those currently teaching are known. After completing their two years of service, they become Alumni, ready to share and help other develop ideas with any of the 46 partners of Teach for All. After becoming an Alumni, Ms Samarany was chosen as the Lebanese Ambassador for Youth at the Arab Thought Foundation, and in 2014 was one of nine young people chosen for the 2014 UN Special Envoy for Global Education’s Youth Courage Award. The awards were in part recognition for the challenges she faced as a new teacher, in a school where security was sometimes uncertain and resources so stretched that even chalk was in short supply. Only one of the teachers had a university degree. As CEO of Teach for Lebanon, those challenges have only multiplied. Before the Syrian refugee crisis, only one in four Lebanese children, or about 250,000 students, used the public schools. Today, the influx of refugee children has swollen those numbers by more than a third. Even so, another 200,000 Syrian youngsters living in Lebanon are still outside the education system. To date, Teach for Lebanon has placed more than 100 teachers in 19 resource-stretched schools, from Northern and South Lebanon to the Bekaa. The organisation estimates it has helped about 8,400 high-risk pupils. One of the strengths of being part of international network, Ms El Samarany says, is the depth of support and experience teachers and education workers can draw on, especially when what confronts them on a daily basis can seem so daunting. “We share best practices, learn from each other and reassure each other that the challenges we face are more or less similar,” she says. “To see classrooms in Nepal or India where Fellows are doing amazing work gives me hope that this is relevant in our context.” The Syrian refugee crisis has impacted another young teacher, but this time over 3,300 kilometres away. Simon Horowitz, now 31, had long decided that the career prospects for his degree in business studies did not appeal. As he puts it: “I was never going to feel comfortable in an office job sitting behind a desk with a computer. I thrive from helping people and get them to start to believe in themselves.” British born, he moved to Austria in 2010 and became fluent in German. “It’s always been very important in my life where I feel I am working with my heart, where I feel doing something meaningful and in my own little way I am making the world a better place,” he says. Three years later, he discovered Teach for Austria. “I Just remember going into the office for the first time and feeling the atmosphere there and just sensing the positivity among the Fellows and among the staff”, he recalls. “I realised I felt at home there and I wanted to be part of it.” Six weeks of training followed before Mr Horowitz found himself in the only public school in a district of Salzburg with a high intake of immigrant children. “It was a huge mix,” he says. “There was only one Austrian child in the whole school.” Many of the students were from Turkey and Eastern Europe but as the refugee crisis enveloped Europe two years ago, more and more arrived from Syria and Afghanistan. “At my school we have two full classes of children with this background,” he says. By then he had the advantage of two years’ experience as a middle school teacher. His confidence in the classroom was a contrast to his early days when: “I felt like I was jumping and I needed someone to catch me. I didn’t really feel like a teacher at that point. I was motivated, and I was ready. I had all of these ideas, and I was kind of stopped in my tracks at the beginning. “I realised that first of all I have to win the trust of these kids you have to build up a relationship step by step. You have to take it day by day and build up relationships with these children, many of whom have had difficult lives.” Mr Horowitz has continued to work in the classroom after the end of his two-year initial commitment. He is now part of a worldwide network of over 55,000 Alumni, of whom nearly seven in 10 have stayed working either in education or with disadvantaged communities. In the Middle East, the Teach for All network operates just in Lebanon and Qatar although it hopes to expand this to five countries by 2020. Three years ago, plans for a Teach For UAE were announced, although the project has yet to launch. There is certainly much work to be done. One UN report estimates that in the Middle East and North Africa region, more than 12 million children and teenagers do not go to school, including up to half of all girls. Such problems are not restricted to the Mena region though. Back in 2011, Cristian Cortes realised soon after graduating with degree in molecular biology that life in a lab coat was not for him. He approached a new organisation, Enseña Chile, or Teach for Chile, and after training, began his two years of teaching in 2012 at a high school. As others elsewhere had found, many of his pupils would come from difficult backgrounds, often as migrants, and where violence and extortion were constant problems. After his two years were up, Mr Cortes decided he wanted to widen his experience. The Teach for All network, and the opportunities and support it offers, has seen him work in Texas, California, Columbia and Israel. He plans next to visit Lebanon and this week he attended the Qudwa teachers forum in Abu Dhabi. His interests include helping teachers everywhere to better meet the aspirations of their students. “I realised inequity was not just in the classroom, but across the whole education system", he says. “That there are greater problems.” Like everyone involved in the Teach for All movement, the story always begins with a slightly nervous young man or women standing at the front of a classroom of expectant young faces for the first time. “I worked for two years,” says Mr Cortes. “And it has completely changed the way I see the world.” © The National via Edarabia.com

[jmmgroup-blog]

Car insurance market overhauled

Ali Waqar was considering buying a 2009 Ford Explorer for Dh14,500 in December, but he put off the purchase until January.

The delay cost the Pakistani banker, 36, an additional Dh400 – not on the price of his new ­motor, but on the car insurance policy.

This was because of a raft of new rules introduced in the UAE on January 1 governing how the car insurance market operates.

“It was an old car, so I wasn’t willing to go for anything other than third-party insurance,” says Abu Dhabi resident Mr Waqar. “But I delayed the transaction and then when I bought the car in January, I had to pay Dh1,400, compared to about Dh1,000, which I had been quoted from the same insurance company a month earlier.”

Mr Waqar is one of many UAE residents to receive an unexpected hike in his insurance quote this year. While the changes have resulted in increased coverage for drivers, they have also increased premiums, causing confusion for many drivers.

Recent data from the comparison site compareit4me.com shows that drivers in the UAE are paying an average of 14.88 per cent more for their car insurance in 2017 than in 2016. Those who have fared the worst are drivers of SUVs valued at under Dh50,000, who have seen fully comprehensive premiums jump by an average of 40.59 per cent, compared to 9.53 per cent more for saloon car owners.

But the changes aren’t all bad news for consumers, says Mirza Qouneh, a legal adviser at the UAE’s Insurance Authority who helped to draw up the new legal framework. “Now the maximum liability of the insurance company for third-party property damage has increased eightfold, from Dh250,000 to Dh2 million, so it’s a win-win situation,” says Mr Qouneh.

He illustrates his point with the example of an insured driver causing an accident that writes off another driver’s SUV, worth Dh400,000. “In the past, the insurance company would only pay up to Dh250,000, so the insured would then be liable to pay Dh150,000 from their own pocket,” explains Mr Qouneh. “Now the insurance company pays up to Dh2m, which provides enough protection for the person who caused the accident and also for the injured parties.”

Mr Qouneh and his team didn’t embark upon the changes lightly. First they spent three years researching car insurance practices in other countries, as well as analysing the local market.

“Car insurance policies in the UAE had remained more or less the same for the past 30 years,” Mr Qouneh says. “Back then, the most expensive cars only cost around Dh15,000. But now the price of cars has of course gone up, so there was a substantial need to make a new policy model that provides a wider scope of protection.”

A number of other new rules have also widened the scope of coverage. Whereas in the past, parents, spouses and children present in the car at the time of the accident were excluded from coverage, now they are covered up to Dh200,000 each.

Omar Ghazanfar, a British doctor based in Abu Dhabi, has a Ford Explorer which he insured last year for Dh3,200, and is currently looking at a quotation of Dh4,000 – “despite the car value having depreciated”, he says. Although he’s now paying more than he’d anticipated for his insurance, at least now, Mr Ghazanfar’s wife and two children, ages 10 and 7, are also covered in the event they are also in the car in an accident.

The new rules also work in favour of those with cars less than a year old. “In the past, insurance companies had the freedom to fix the car of the injured party in any auto-shop, even if it was one that was run by a couple of novices trying to learn how to become mechanics,” says Mr Qouneh. “Now, according to the new regulations, if the car is one year old or less, the insurance company is compelled to fix the car in the dealership.”

Another plus point is that insurance companies were previously under no legal obligation to compensate within a specific period of time. Now, if a person files a claim with the company and has all the necessary documents, the insurance company must settle the claim and pay compensation within 15 days. “It’s about speeding up the process,” Mr Qouneh explains. “If the insurance company doesn’t pay the claim in a timely manner, the injured party, and/or the insured, can ask the insurance company to pay them damages for not paying the claims within that 15 days, in addition to paying the amount of the claim.”

If you are not at fault, according to the new rules, you’re now automatically provided with a replacement car (or the equivalent compensation) by the other party’s insurance provider for a maximum of 10 days at up to Dh300 a day.

The new regulations have also closed legal loopholes to prevent insurance companies from getting out of paying in the event of bad weather. After the unprecedented storm of March 2016, some insurance companies tried to avoid paying claims by arguing that the damage to cars was caused by a “flood”, Mr Qouneh explains. “This was because floods, as well as other such natural disasters, were excluded from coverage. We amended the policy, so that only the concerned authority in that particular emirate can declare an event to be a natural disaster, not the insurance company. In the case of the storm last March, the storm was never officially declared as such,” he says.

But while better cover is positive for UAE consumers, the rise in premiums has the knock-on effect of making them gravitate towards cheaper third-party liability insurance, rather than comprehensive cover. According to Compareit4me site, its share of third-party policy sales doubled in the January-February 2017 period, compared to the last two months of 2016.

“This may suggest that more UAE residents are being driven towards third-party coverage, having been priced out of the ability to secure fully comprehensive policies,” says Jonathan Rawling, chief financial officer at compareit4me.com. “If this trend continues, we may see a situation in which the least affluent people in the UAE are left with inadequate financial protection.”

However the price of third-party liability has also risen in line with new guidelines. In the past, insurance companies were able to sell third-party policies for a minimum of Dh600, whereas now the minimum is Dh750.

Mr Rawling says those looking to reduce what they pay should consider reducing add-ons – extra protection that is not standard on a policy such as off-road cover.

“In a legal sense, you only ‘need’ to have third-party insurance for your car to drive on the roads. But lots of people opt for fully comprehensive cover because it protects the investment they’ve made into the vehicle. It’s the same story with add-ons,” he says.

“If you’ll benefit from the feature, then it’s probably a box worth ticking, particularly given they only cost about Dh150 apiece. And if you really won’t benefit from an add-on then you’re under no obligation to buy it.”

However, not all consumers are paying more now for their car insurance.

Noelia Corte, a Spaniard who lives in Dubai, has just renewed her fully comprehensive policy with RSA Insurance Group for her 2012 Toyota Land Cruiser for Dh2,950, compared to the approximately Dh3,600 last year she paid with a different company.

“This is the lowest premium I have paid since I came to the UAE five years ago, and I was really surprised to read that others are experiencing premium increases,” she says.

Mr Qouneh points out that consumers can now choose between 48 different insurance companies on the market when they’re shopping around for quotes. “Many of them sell by the minimum standard, so you can always buy insurance from those cheaper companies,” he says. But many consumers don’t renew their car insurance until the last minute, leaving them with less time to shop around. According to ServiceMarket.com, a marketplace for home services, almost a third of residents look to buy their car insurance within a day of their car registration renewal date.

Mr Waqar took a savvier approach, securing his premium through haggling and comparing the market online. He is now about to pay for the annual renewal on his other car, a 2014 Honda Accord. His premium is Dh2,450, which has remained the same year-on-year since he purchased the car new, despite the fact that the vehicle has depreciated in value by 15 to 20 per cent each year.

“Of course I’m not happy, I was expecting to pay less this year,” he says. “I feel like the companies are squeezing us, at a time when life in the UAE is becoming more expensive,” he says.

Despite the wide scope of changes, some experts feel they don’t go far enough, especially when it comes to penalising dangerous drivers.

Phil Clarke, road safety consultant at the Transport Research Lab, says one factor that needs addressing is the ease of having a car insured without checking a background check on the motorist for traffic offences.

“In the UAE there is no link between driving records and the cost of insurance,” he says.

Frederik Bisbjerg, the executive vice president, retail Mena, at Qatar Insurance Company, says that drivers with a history of causing accidents can also still escape paying higher premiums by switching to another insurer. “The issue arises when a driver with accident history switches insurers to avoid a higher premium; the new insurer cannot (yet) check his accidents and therefore will tend to offer him too low a rate. I know the RTA [Road and Transport Authority] is working on a solution where accident history will be shared between insurers, so I believe it’s a solution that’s coming soon.”

pf@thenational.ae

Follow us on Twitter @TheNationalPF

Source: The National

Car insurance market overhauled was originally published on JMM Group of Companies

[jmmgroup-blog]

Safety behind the wheel comes at a hefty price

Ali Waqar was considering buying a 2009 Ford Explorer for Dh14,500 in December, but he put off the purchase until January.

The delay cost the Pakistani banker, 36, an additional Dh400 – not on the price of his new ­motor, but on the car insurance policy.

This was because of a raft of new rules introduced in the UAE on January 1 governing how the car insurance market operates.

“It was an old car, so I wasn’t willing to go for anything other than third-party insurance,” says Abu Dhabi resident Mr Waqar. “But I delayed the transaction and then when I bought the car in January, I had to pay Dh1,400, compared to about Dh1,000, which I had been quoted from the same insurance company a month earlier.”

Mr Waqar is one of many UAE residents to receive an unexpected hike in his insurance quote this year. While the changes have resulted in increased coverage for drivers, they have also increased premiums, causing confusion for many drivers.

Recent data from the comparison site compareit4me.com shows that drivers in the UAE are paying an average of 14.88 per cent more for their car insurance in 2017 than in 2016. Those who have fared the worst are drivers of SUVs valued at under Dh50,000, who have seen fully comprehensive premiums jump by an average of 40.59 per cent, compared to 9.53 per cent more for saloon car owners.

But the changes aren’t all bad news for consumers, says Mirza Qouneh, a legal adviser at the UAE’s Insurance Authority who helped to draw up the new legal framework. “Now the maximum liability of the insurance company for third-party property damage has increased eightfold, from Dh250,000 to Dh2 million, so it’s a win-win situation,” says Mr Qouneh.

He illustrates his point with the example of an insured driver causing an accident that writes off another driver’s SUV, worth Dh400,000. “In the past, the insurance company would only pay up to Dh250,000, so the insured would then be liable to pay Dh150,000 from their own pocket,” explains Mr Qouneh. “Now the insurance company pays up to Dh2m, which provides enough protection for the person who caused the accident and also for the injured parties.”

Mr Qouneh and his team didn’t embark upon the changes lightly. First they spent three years researching car insurance practices in other countries, as well as analysing the local market.

“Car insurance policies in the UAE had remained more or less the same for the past 30 years,” Mr Qouneh says. “Back then, the most expensive cars only cost around Dh15,000. But now the price of cars has of course gone up, so there was a substantial need to make a new policy model that provides a wider scope of protection.”

A number of other new rules have also widened the scope of coverage. Whereas in the past, parents, spouses and children present in the car at the time of the accident were excluded from coverage, now they are covered up to Dh200,000 each.

Omar Ghazanfar, a British doctor based in Abu Dhabi, has a Ford Explorer which he insured last year for Dh3,200, and is currently looking at a quotation of Dh4,000 – “despite the car value having depreciated”, he says. Although he’s now paying more than he’d anticipated for his insurance, at least now, Mr Ghazanfar’s wife and two children, ages 10 and 7, are also covered in the event they are also in the car in an accident.

The new rules also work in favour of those with cars less than a year old. “In the past, insurance companies had the freedom to fix the car of the injured party in any auto-shop, even if it was one that was run by a couple of novices trying to learn how to become mechanics,” says Mr Qouneh. “Now, according to the new regulations, if the car is one year old or less, the insurance company is compelled to fix the car in the dealership.”

Another plus point is that insurance companies were previously under no legal obligation to compensate within a specific period of time. Now, if a person files a claim with the company and has all the necessary documents, the insurance company must settle the claim and pay compensation within 15 days. “It’s about speeding up the process,” Mr Qouneh explains. “If the insurance company doesn’t pay the claim in a timely manner, the injured party, and/or the insured, can ask the insurance company to pay them damages for not paying the claims within that 15 days, in addition to paying the amount of the claim.”

If you are not at fault, according to the new rules, you’re now automatically provided with a replacement car (or the equivalent compensation) by the other party’s insurance provider for a maximum of 10 days at up to Dh300 a day.

The new regulations have also closed legal loopholes to prevent insurance companies from getting out of paying in the event of bad weather. After the unprecedented storm of March 2016, some insurance companies tried to avoid paying claims by arguing that the damage to cars was caused by a “flood”, Mr Qouneh explains. “This was because floods, as well as other such natural disasters, were excluded from coverage. We amended the policy, so that only the concerned authority in that particular emirate can declare an event to be a natural disaster, not the insurance company. In the case of the storm last March, the storm was never officially declared as such,” he says.

But while better cover is positive for UAE consumers, the rise in premiums has the knock-on effect of making them gravitate towards cheaper third-party liability insurance, rather than comprehensive cover. According to Compareit4me site, its share of third-party policy sales doubled in the January-February 2017 period, compared to the last two months of 2016.

“This may suggest that more UAE residents are being driven towards third-party coverage, having been priced out of the ability to secure fully comprehensive policies,” says Jonathan Rawling, chief financial officer at compareit4me.com. “If this trend continues, we may see a situation in which the least affluent people in the UAE are left with inadequate financial protection.”

However the price of third-party liability has also risen in line with new guidelines. In the past, insurance companies were able to sell third-party policies for a minimum of Dh600, whereas now the minimum is Dh750.

Mr Rawling says those looking to reduce what they pay should consider reducing add-ons – extra protection that is not standard on a policy such as off-road cover.

“In a legal sense, you only ‘need’ to have third-party insurance for your car to drive on the roads. But lots of people opt for fully comprehensive cover because it protects the investment they’ve made into the vehicle. It’s the same story with add-ons,” he says.

“If you’ll benefit from the feature, then it’s probably a box worth ticking, particularly given they only cost about Dh150 apiece. And if you really won’t benefit from an add-on then you’re under no obligation to buy it.”

However, not all consumers are paying more now for their car insurance.

Noelia Corte, a Spaniard who lives in Dubai, has just renewed her fully comprehensive policy with RSA Insurance Group for her 2012 Toyota Land Cruiser for Dh2,950, compared to the approximately Dh3,600 last year she paid with a different company.

“This is the lowest premium I have paid since I came to the UAE five years ago, and I was really surprised to read that others are experiencing premium increases,” she says.

Mr Qouneh points out that consumers can now choose between 48 different insurance companies on the market when they’re shopping around for quotes. “Many of them sell by the minimum standard, so you can always buy insurance from those cheaper companies,” he says. But many consumers don’t renew their car insurance until the last minute, leaving them with less time to shop around. According to ServiceMarket.com, a marketplace for home services, almost a third of residents look to buy their car insurance within a day of their car registration renewal date.

Mr Waqar took a savvier approach, securing his premium through haggling and comparing the market online. He is now about to pay for the annual renewal on his other car, a 2014 Honda Accord. His premium is Dh2,450, which has remained the same year-on-year since he purchased the car new, despite the fact that the vehicle has depreciated in value by 15 to 20 per cent each year.

“Of course I’m not happy, I was expecting to pay less this year,” he says. “I feel like the companies are squeezing us, at a time when life in the UAE is becoming more expensive,” he says.

Despite the wide scope of changes, some experts feel they don’t go far enough, especially when it comes to penalising dangerous drivers.

Phil Clarke, road safety consultant at the Transport Research Lab, says one factor that needs addressing is the ease of having a car insured without checking a background check on the motorist for traffic offences.

“In the UAE there is no link between driving records and the cost of insurance,” he says.

Frederik Bisbjerg, the executive vice president, retail Mena, at Qatar Insurance Company, says that drivers with a history of causing accidents can also still escape paying higher premiums by switching to another insurer. “The issue arises when a driver with accident history switches insurers to avoid a higher premium; the new insurer cannot (yet) check his accidents and therefore will tend to offer him too low a rate. I know the RTA [Road and Transport Authority] is working on a solution where accident history will be shared between insurers, so I believe it’s a solution that’s coming soon.”

pf@thenational.ae

Follow us on Twitter @TheNationalPF

Source: The National

Safety behind the wheel comes at a hefty price was originally published on JMM Group of Companies

[jmmgroup-blog]

UAE car insurance market overhauled

Ali Waqar was considering buying a 2009 Ford Explorer for Dh14,500 in December, but he put off the purchase until January.

The delay cost the Pakistani banker, 36, an additional Dh400 – not on the price of his new ­motor, but on the car insurance policy.

This was because of a raft of new rules introduced in the UAE on January 1 governing how the car insurance market operates.

“It was an old car, so I wasn’t willing to go for anything other than third-party insurance,” says Abu Dhabi resident Mr Waqar. “But I delayed the transaction and then when I bought the car in January, I had to pay Dh1,400, compared to about Dh1,000, which I had been quoted from the same insurance company a month earlier.”

Mr Waqar is one of many UAE residents to receive an unexpected hike in his insurance quote this year. While the changes have resulted in increased coverage for drivers, they have also increased premiums, causing confusion for many drivers.

Recent data from the comparison site compareit4me.com shows that drivers in the UAE are paying an average of 14.88 per cent more for their car insurance in 2017 than in 2016. Those who have fared the worst are drivers of SUVs valued at under Dh50,000, who have seen fully comprehensive premiums jump by an average of 40.59 per cent, compared to 9.53 per cent more for saloon car owners.

But the changes aren’t all bad news for consumers, says Mirza Qouneh, a legal adviser at the UAE’s Insurance Authority who helped to draw up the new legal framework. “Now the maximum liability of the insurance company for third-party property damage has increased eightfold, from Dh250,000 to Dh2 million, so it’s a win-win situation,” says Mr Qouneh.

He illustrates his point with the example of an insured driver causing an accident that writes off another driver’s SUV, worth Dh400,000. “In the past, the insurance company would only pay up to Dh250,000, so the insured would then be liable to pay Dh150,000 from their own pocket,” explains Mr Qouneh. “Now the insurance company pays up to Dh2m, which provides enough protection for the person who caused the accident and also for the injured parties.”

Mr Qouneh and his team didn’t embark upon the changes lightly. First they spent three years researching car insurance practices in other countries, as well as analysing the local market.

“Car insurance policies in the UAE had remained more or less the same for the past 30 years,” Mr Qouneh says. “Back then, the most expensive cars only cost around Dh15,000. But now the price of cars has of course gone up, so there was a substantial need to make a new policy model that provides a wider scope of protection.”

A number of other new rules have also widened the scope of coverage. Whereas in the past, parents, spouses and children present in the car at the time of the accident were excluded from coverage, now they are covered up to Dh200,000 each.

Omar Ghazanfar, a British doctor based in Abu Dhabi, has a Ford Explorer which he insured last year for Dh3,200, and is currently looking at a quotation of Dh4,000 – “despite the car value having depreciated”, he says. Although he’s now paying more than he’d anticipated for his insurance, at least now, Mr Ghazanfar’s wife and two children, ages 10 and 7, are also covered in the event they are also in the car in an accident.

The new rules also work in favour of those with cars less than a year old. “In the past, insurance companies had the freedom to fix the car of the injured party in any auto-shop, even if it was one that was run by a couple of novices trying to learn how to become mechanics,” says Mr Qouneh. “Now, according to the new regulations, if the car is one year old or less, the insurance company is compelled to fix the car in the dealership.”

Another plus point is that insurance companies were previously under no legal obligation to compensate within a specific period of time. Now, if a person files a claim with the company and has all the necessary documents, the insurance company must settle the claim and pay compensation within 15 days. “It’s about speeding up the process,” Mr Qouneh explains. “If the insurance company doesn’t pay the claim in a timely manner, the injured party, and/or the insured, can ask the insurance company to pay them damages for not paying the claims within that 15 days, in addition to paying the amount of the claim.”

If you are not at fault, according to the new rules, you’re now automatically provided with a replacement car (or the equivalent compensation) by the other party’s insurance provider for a maximum of 10 days at up to Dh300 a day.

The new regulations have also closed legal loopholes to prevent insurance companies from getting out of paying in the event of bad weather. After the unprecedented storm of March 2016, some insurance companies tried to avoid paying claims by arguing that the damage to cars was caused by a “flood”, Mr Qouneh explains. “This was because floods, as well as other such natural disasters, were excluded from coverage. We amended the policy, so that only the concerned authority in that particular emirate can declare an event to be a natural disaster, not the insurance company. In the case of the storm last March, the storm was never officially declared as such,” he says.

But while better cover is positive for UAE consumers, the rise in premiums has the knock-on effect of making them gravitate towards cheaper third-party liability insurance, rather than comprehensive cover. According to Compareit4me site, its share of third-party policy sales doubled in the January-February 2017 period, compared to the last two months of 2016.

“This may suggest that more UAE residents are being driven towards third-party coverage, having been priced out of the ability to secure fully comprehensive policies,” says Jonathan Rawling, chief financial officer at compareit4me.com. “If this trend continues, we may see a situation in which the least affluent people in the UAE are left with inadequate financial protection.”

However the price of third-party liability has also risen in line with new guidelines. In the past, insurance companies were able to sell third-party policies for a minimum of Dh600, whereas now the minimum is Dh750.

Mr Rawling says those looking to reduce what they pay should consider reducing add-ons – extra protection that is not standard on a policy such as off-road cover.

“In a legal sense, you only ‘need’ to have third-party insurance for your car to drive on the roads. But lots of people opt for fully comprehensive cover because it protects the investment they’ve made into the vehicle. It’s the same story with add-ons,” he says.

“If you’ll benefit from the feature, then it’s probably a box worth ticking, particularly given they only cost about Dh150 apiece. And if you really won’t benefit from an add-on then you’re under no obligation to buy it.”

However, not all consumers are paying more now for their car insurance.

Noelia Corte, a Spaniard who lives in Dubai, has just renewed her fully comprehensive policy with RSA Insurance Group for her 2012 Toyota Land Cruiser for Dh2,950, compared to the approximately Dh3,600 last year she paid with a different company.

“This is the lowest premium I have paid since I came to the UAE five years ago, and I was really surprised to read that others are experiencing premium increases,” she says.

Mr Qouneh points out that consumers can now choose between 48 different insurance companies on the market when they’re shopping around for quotes. “Many of them sell by the minimum standard, so you can always buy insurance from those cheaper companies,” he says. But many consumers don’t renew their car insurance until the last minute, leaving them with less time to shop around. According to ServiceMarket.com, a marketplace for home services, almost a third of residents look to buy their car insurance within a day of their car registration renewal date.

Mr Waqar took a savvier approach, securing his premium through haggling and comparing the market online. He is now about to pay for the annual renewal on his other car, a 2014 Honda Accord. His premium is Dh2,450, which has remained the same year-on-year since he purchased the car new, despite the fact that the vehicle has depreciated in value by 15 to 20 per cent each year.

“Of course I’m not happy, I was expecting to pay less this year,” he says. “I feel like the companies are squeezing us, at a time when life in the UAE is becoming more expensive,” he says.

Despite the wide scope of changes, some experts feel they don’t go far enough, especially when it comes to penalising dangerous drivers.

Phil Clarke, road safety consultant at the Transport Research Lab, says one factor that needs addressing is the ease of having a car insured without checking a background check on the motorist for traffic offences.

“In the UAE there is no link between driving records and the cost of insurance,” he says.

Frederik Bisbjerg, the executive vice president, retail Mena, at Qatar Insurance Company, says that drivers with a history of causing accidents can also still escape paying higher premiums by switching to another insurer. “The issue arises when a driver with accident history switches insurers to avoid a higher premium; the new insurer cannot (yet) check his accidents and therefore will tend to offer him too low a rate. I know the RTA [Road and Transport Authority] is working on a solution where accident history will be shared between insurers, so I believe it’s a solution that’s coming soon.”

pf@thenational.ae

Follow us on Twitter @TheNationalPF

Source: The National

UAE car insurance market overhauled was originally published on JMM Group of Companies